Description

This delightful anecdotal collection of cameos around the world, told with wry humour and a gentle, sometimes quirky style slightly reminiscent of a bygone era, contains a mixture of description and observation, with a smattering of autobiographical incident. William Wood has lived in many places of the world, is well travelled and well written, with a keen sense of enjoyment of what he sees and experiences, and a talent for bringing that visually to the mind of his reader. The short, usually self-contained pieces make wonderful cameos both for those who do their reading in snatches, and those who will want to devour his stories in one sitting.

William Wood has led a nomadic life and his friends and relatives are far flung. He now lives and writes in Sussex and when he can get away he likes visiting his children in France, Rutland and Cumbria, or his in-laws in Norway and Slovakia. The diaries he keeps on these visits occasionally give him local colour and ideas for his stories. If he ever makes money from his writing he intends visiting old haunts in Africa, India and Australia - or even pastures new.

In addition to his Little Book of Pleasures, William writes journalistic articles. He has had stories on the BBC World Service, and contributed to a variety of magazines and anthologies. He has also always written poems; they are, he says, "something that has to be squeezed out like a boil to give me relief". At university William wrote and directed his own plays, and later worked with amateur groups in Norway. Most often he writes short stories and novels; his first remains unpublished (as, he says, all first novels should be). His first published book was No Time (Babash/Ryan, 2003). Set in South Sudan, it predicted the independence of the south nearly two decades in advance. His next novel, Passing Wind, was shortlisted for an Amazon prize.